a hydrated mama who makes time for her art…
Gillian
In 2006, I married my childhood sweetheart. Now, five and a half years later, we are raising our two wonderful boys, Roman (4) and Asher (5 months), while also juggling work and school. Currently, I am staying home with the boys, teaching Roman in his first year of homeschool and attending college part time studying art. My husband makes the money and is also a part time college student. While pregnant with Asher, I thought the adjustment to two boys would be a breeze. Roman is such a sweet and tender boy and I knew he would love to help us care for our baby. We kept him super involved in my pregnancy. His favorite pastime was talking to my belly and having my belly (well, me) talk back. However, one birth and one long week in the hospital later, I came home to find a whole new Roman that I’d never met. His transition from being the only love of our lives to big brother was definitely a rough one. I’ve also realized that having two is definitely a big adjustment for ME. Six months later, life has definitely settled down some, but I find that our life definitely feels much more disorganized and haphazard than it was with our family of just 3. I’ve loved reading all the mama’s tips on Letters to Ames so far. As far as making it work for my family, I know we have areas in which we could improve! I’ve put together a list of goals, that I hope will boost our family life in 2012.
1. Take Better Care of Myself Physically
• Eat more whole foods: Fast food definitely became my go-to crutch during my pregnancy and having two babies hasn’t made that habit any easier to break. I really want to get back to more whole foods for my family. Especially since Asher is reaching the six month mark, I want to re-evaluate our eating habits so that we can make a good example for him as he starts his journey into solid foods.
• Find healthier energy boosters: My other crutch has become sweet sugary iced coffees! I would love to go back to drinking more green tea and green smoothies instead to boost my energy!
• Be realistic about exercise: Running to the gym has definitely become a bigger challenge since having a new baby and additionally moving to the country. I want to be able to stick to realistic goals and feel good about accomplishing them, instead of feeling frustrated that I can’t exercise more.
2. Take Better Care of Myself Emotionally.
• Carve out time for myself: Lately I’ve taken a couple trips to the coffee shop ALONE and that has been great. I spend every waking moment with my boys and I love it. But those couple hours of peace are heavenly. I usually find it easier and preferable to take my little nursling with me or spend time with the whole family, but I know I need a little bit of time to myself sometimes to relax.
• Set aside time for art: Working on my photography, updating my blog, writing, these are things that I love and they make me feel more whole as a person.
3. Create Routine.
• Make some sort of plan for our days: I pretty much always feel like I’m getting dragged through a race. I know part of the problem is that our day to day schedule is so disorderly. I’ve always been a pretty go with the flow type person, but with two little ones I am craving a little bit more routine.
I love the feeling of starting a fresh year and having a change to clean up and better your life. I really hope to be able to strive for these three things in my life. That is how this mama plans on making it work this year!
Love, Gillian
3 Comments
These are great and I needed to hear them! Thanks for sharing.
Really interesting post – and a great set of goals. I hope you get the chance to enjoy some more alone time & work on your art, it’s definitely so important to have a little time just for you!
I LOVE this! We just had our second in October and things are finally starting to get a little easier. It’s been such a big adjustment! I’m so glad I’m not alone!